New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Inspector General findsnumerous security and oversight problems at the state prison in Dannemora contributed to the prison break of two inmates last year. The June 6th, 2015 escape of inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton Correctional Facility near Plattsburgh led to a massive three-week manhunt, in which Matt was killed in an encounter with state police and Sweat was shot and wounded and recaptured.
Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott’s report says the belongings of staff were supposed to be routinely searched, but were not, allowing prison employee Joyce Mitchell to smuggle in some of the tools the inmates used in their escape.
Mitchell herself was not adequately supervised, leading to her “grossly inappropriate relationships” with the inmates. Guards also failed to regularly count inmates in their beds during the nighttime, contributing to the hours-long delay before the two inmates' absence was discovered. The report says simply doing a nightly bed count would have foiled Matt and Sweat’s escape plot. Instead, the report says, the corrections officers falsified reports saying that they had done the counts.
Cell searches were infrequent and too cursory and hasty, the report finds. The prison officials also almost never inspected the prison’s tunnels or catwalks, routes the inmates used to get away.
Leahy also calls into question the agency’s ability to oversee itself, saying its own internal investigations unit was compromised because too many of the inspectors are former prison guards who are reluctant to speak ill of former colleagues and supervisors.
The IG says she believes several employees “committed criminal acts” and she’s referred the cases to prosecutors.
Spokesperson Thomas Mailey said that the agency since the breakout has “instituted a number of reforms to strengthen operations,” including installing new cameras and security gates, retraining staff, and disciplining responsible employees.
Mailey points out that the prison’s superintendent has been replaced, as well as “other senior administrative personnel.”
He says the agency will continue to work with the Inspector General to “implement her recommendations to improve operations” at the prison and throughout the state’s entire prison system to “help ensure this incident is never repeated.”
